Turk minister reignites debate

Population exchange was not one-sided and Gonul ignores history, according to Turkish experts

A woman leaves a flower at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk which is covered by his portraits, flowers and a Turkish national flag on the 70th anniversary of his death in Ankara on Monday.

By Izgi Gungor - Hurriyet Daily News

ISTANBUL – The population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923, which led hundreds of thousands of people to leave their ancestral homelands, was revisited by a politician recently, putting the controversial 85-year-old event under scrutiny.

At the Turkish Embassy in Brussels on Monday, Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul said the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923 was a necessary step toward building a nation-state at the time.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has recently come under fire for his use of more nationalist language and pro-state policies on some critical political issues, including the Kurdish problem, but this time it was Gonul who embraced the nationalist discourse.

“One of the great achievements of Ataturk, who abolished the caliphate to establish a nation, is the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923,” he said, speaking at the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the death of modern Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. “Could Turkey be the same national country had the Greek community still lived in the Aegean or Armenians lived in many parts of Turkey? We can’t ignore the contribution of those [the Armenians] who feel themselves victim due to the expulsion that resulted in the removal of many Armenians from Anatolia.”

Although Gonul made a public excuse saying his words were misunderstood, the experts reacted strongly to his remarks.

“A nation-building process is a homogeneity project and was what all the world’s countries were trying to do at that time. He didn’t bring attention to this fact, instead he presented the issue as if the population exchange was a desirable and positive thing,” Soli Ozel, political science professor at Bilgi University told the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review.

“He was expected to say that after 80 years the move has resulted in social and cultural impoverishment for Turkey,” he said.

Gonul also said neither Greece nor Turkey wanted different religious elements in their societies as they formed their identity at the time, implying that it wasn’t a one-sided event and the exchange was desirable by both communities.

The exchange took place between Turkish citizens of the Greek Orthodox religion established in Turkish territory and of Greek citizens of the Muslim religion established in Greek territory under the Treaty of Lausanne signed by the Greek and Turkish governments in 1923.

About 400,000 Turks moved from Greece to Anatolia and about 1.1 million Greeks moved from Anatolia and Eastern Thrace to Greece in the exchange.

For retired ambassador Yalim Eralp, Gonul’s remarks were unfortunate as they echoed of racist language. “Should the existence of Turks in Germany disturb Germany, for instance?” he said.

“Turkey was a war-weary country at the time and it had some concerns about its unity. The exchange was vital in the social and political context of the time. Gonul however ignores these facts; his intention is totally different. His remarks are racist,” Eralp said.

Criticizing Gonul’s remarks, Professor Baskin Oran said the displacement of Greeks and Armenians from Anatolia delayed Turkey’s industrialization, economically speaking, by at least 50 years and the ethnic and religious cleanups eliminated Turkey’s pluralism, politically speaking.

Oran implied it was the deep conservatism and limited worldview embraced by both the founders of and voters for the ruling Justice and Development Party that have inspired its politicians to reveal such thoughts. Other political scientists related the population exchange to the 14 points, a peace program presented at the end of World War I by US President Woodrow Wilson in defense of autonomous development for non-Turkish people of the Ottoman Empire.

For Nilufer Narli, sociology professor at Bahcesehir University, the story had two sides and its historical context should be considered.

“In the 1920s we didn’t talk about multi-cultural societies. It is something that we talk about right now, in the 21st century. The concepts of nation-state and nationalism were the dominating ideas at the time,” she said.

“Likewise, not only Turkey but Greece itself tried to establish an identity and society based on homogeneity. Greece sought a new national identity and developed one by differentiating itself from all elements related to the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic. Even the hostility became part of developing their identity,” she said.

That was what the young Turkish republic did, according to her.

Foreign policy expert Mensur Akgun, meanwhile, said Gonul had no right to make such sociological and political comments on population exchange, a topic current international law considers a crime.

“He praises a Turkish nation that hosts no minorities. He implies that only Turks should live in this territory, ignoring the existence of the minorities of Kurds, Greeks etc. He doesn’t see the multi-cultural composition of the society,” he said.

“As if he is thankful for those events. It is a pretty unfortunate remark at a time when Turkey wants to become part of Europe,” he added.

Gonul thanked Armenians for leaving Anatolia in 1915, but Verkin Arioba, an Armenian living in Turkey and founder of the Cultural Heritage Preservation Foundation Turkey, thinks differently.

“I am happy to live in this country as an Armenian and for not leaving the country,” Verkin said.